As a result of the outbreak of the military conflict in Ukraine, at the level of the Romanian Border Police, gradual measures were ordered to strengthen the state border surveillance device, as well as a series of measures to manage the situation of Ukrainian refugees.
From the very first moment, the border police responded unanimously to the general effort to support the Ukrainian refugees and, even on their own initiative, stayed at work to offer help both to people in difficulty and to their colleagues on duty.
To increase operational capacity, we also benefited from support from the European Agency for Border Police and Coast Guard (FRONTEX), which, starting from March 2022, extended Operation TERRA 2022 to the border with Ukraine.
Thus, considering that a large part of civilians chose to withdraw from the path of war, many of them seeking refuge on the territory of the EU states and neighboring countries, starting from 24.02.2022, at the border crossing points with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, significant increases in passenger and goods traffic were recorded, both in the direction of entry and exit from the country.
The operative situation recorded in the period 24.02.2022 – 23.02.2023, regarding the traffic of Ukrainian citizens and the transit of goods through the border crossing points, is presented as follows:
- 3,578,177 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania through border crossing points throughout the country. The statistical data refer to the number of border crossings, a person having the possibility to make several trips through the border crossing points in the respective time interval.
- of the total number of Ukrainian citizens who entered our country, 742,221 are minors;
- approximately 5,400 Ukrainian citizens were detected crossing/attempting to cross the border illegally on the way to Romania. Those concerned requested a form of protection from the Romanian state at the structures of the Border Police;
- a special situation was recorded regarding the traffic of goods transport vehicles, the pressure being much greater at the northern and eastern borders. The situation for the year 2022 indicates that, through the border crossing points with Ukraine, the values of goods traffic recorded higher indicators by 86% (389,400 vehicles in both directions of travel), while at the border with the Republic of Moldova the increase of was 60% (501,600 trucks).
- The border crossing points where goods traffic recorded increased values are: Isaccea (+157%) and Siret (+103%) - both on the border with Ukraine; Oancea (+389%), Stânca (+103%) and Albita (+43%) - on the border with the Republic of Moldova, but also Nădlac (+51%) - on the border with Hungary.
At the level of the Romanian Border Police, measures were adopted to increase the processing capacity of refugees, consisting of:
- supplementing the staff at the border crossing points, as well as the mobile equipment for carrying out the control formalities;
- the maximum use of the control arteries, including the possibility of carrying out checks for entering Romania on the arteries used for exiting the country (in case the existing infrastructure on the way of entry was undersized in the context of large groups of people at the same time );
- creating separate flows for vulnerable people, according to needs and related to the configuration of crossing points;
- paying special attention to the entry into the country of minors, foreign citizens or stateless persons, who are not accompanied by any of their parents or legal representatives or who are not under the legal supervision of another person;
- implementation of support mechanisms for people arriving from Ukraine. In this sense, after the completion of the border formalities, the persons were guided, depending on the support needs, to representatives of the local authorities, the county council, NGOs, volunteers present in the vicinity of the crossing points;
- the establishment of a communication line for Ukrainian citizens through the telephone line 021/9590, staff being supplemented with Ukrainian-speaking workers, for the management of these calls;
- carrying out surveillance missions in cooperation with the structures of the General Aviation Inspectorate and the staff assigned by Frontex, using both the helicopters provided by the IGAV and the means of aerial surveillance (plane and helicopter), contracted by the previously mentioned agency;
- two road-specific crossing points (Vicovu de Sus BCP and Racovaț BCP) and one railway-specific (Valea Vișeului) were opened;
- also to streamline the traffic of goods and make waiting times more efficient, the Romanian Border Police, together with the other authorities acting at the border, initiated and developed working groups with similar authorities from the Republic of Moldova to identify effective measures in terms of control at the common border. As a result of these discussions, recently, the Agreement was signed between the Government of Romania and the Government of the Republic of Moldova regarding the coordinated control in the Albița BCP, which supports the streamlining of traffic at the eastern border.
Currently, the traffic is running under normal conditions, the situation being in a permanent dynamic and carefully monitored so that the surveillance and control device is adapted to the situation in the field.
